WWIII Wargaming

[M-Type]

Hello all, I just started up this thread because I had an idea. I know there's probably dozens of WWIII-related wargames out there, and they're probably great and comprehensive, but the one wargame I actually played, Dirtside II, could fit the bill real well. It has a very simple system, and though it's based for science-fiction wargaming, the 'core' is based around building your own vehicles. In fact, I found a whole list of "Contemporary" vehicles that'd be perfect for a NATO/Warsaw showdown. The same site also has numerous house rules for everything from mortar teams to flamethrowers, cruise missiles to special forces teams.

And if you hop on over to Junior General and print out some vehicle sprites, you're ready to go!

That being said, anyone else have a say on great WWIII wargames?

EDIT: And don't worry, there's rules for chemical and nuclear strikes, for those who want to really win.

[Cdnwolf]

I use to play the Assault series of board games...

http://www.trollandtoad.com/p135998.html

and then of course Command Decision the modern rules

http://tacticalwargamer.com/miniatur...nddecision.htm

[raketenjagdpanzer]

When I was younger I played (never, ever won a game, BTW) SSI's Red Lightning on my Amiga.

I still have the Timeline Games "Close & Destroy" & "Close & Destroy II" around here, those were pretty good.

[Adm.Lee]

I'm fond of several of GDW's games.

Assault (Boots & Saddles, Bundeswehr, Chieftain) covered WW3 action, the players as battalion/regimental/brigade-level commanders. Counters are platoons. I'm in a VASSAL PBEM game of this right now.

I have First Battle/Last Battle, GDW's skirmish level game of moderns, adapted to T2k. I didn't like the rules much, although they were pretty simple. They did have air-to-mud rules, unlike Assault.

Third World War had division or brigade counters, and covered the German front. Arctic Front covered Norway, Sweden & Finland, Southern Front had the Balkans, and Persian Gulf covered Iran & Iraq and neighbors. The last one included a card game of pre-war diplomacy, to allow variations in which nations or factions might end up on NATO's or Pact's side. My main criticism of it was that sub-divisional units, especially supporting artillery, were largely ignored. The sequence of play was different for the Pact and NATO players, forcing the Pact player into using echelon-style operations, which I think is a strength. Bonus point: all four games can be linked together into one big one. This could make a neat group game someday.

Victory Games had NATO, another division-counter game of the Inter-German border, Denmark and Austria. It had some good concepts, but its Pact OB seemed out of step with other things that I've read.

At sea, I have all of Victory Games' "Fleet" series, each one covered a different part of the ocean. I suppose they could be connected, but I don't remember any rules for them. A neat design element: each turn, a player chose in which order he would resolve subsurface, surface and air actions.

VG's Aegean Strike and Gulf Strike were also air-naval integrated games, but they never sang for me.

As for miniatures, I played a fair bit of Dirtside II in the 90s, but not as a WW3 game. It certainly could be adapted to that, and it's a great system. The skirmish-level version, Stargrunt, has some neat C2 elements as well. I cut my WW3 teeth on GDW's Tacforce miniatures rules, but I don't remember much beyond the fact that we never had any miniatures, so we tried making them out of graph paper. That, and the hitenetration charts were very similar to Assault's.

Harpoon was a good, if technology-focussed, set of naval rules.

I like GDW's Air Superiority/Air Strike air games for modern stuff. The Air Strike maps are compatible with Assault, btw.

Not GDW: I have all 5 games of SPI/Decision Games' Central Front series. These were released in Strategy & Tactics, and at least one was independently sold in a box. Fifth Corps, BAOR and Fulda Gap were all released by SPI, and had one rules system, while Danube Front and North German Plain were released by DG with a completely different rules set. There's also a Berlin '85 game, which I think is the same rules as the SPI games. I have all six, but only learned the DG rules. These were the whole front, battalion counters and 2km hexes. I'd like to merge them somehow and run it as a convention game someday.

Drive on Frankfurt was from a magazine (Command?) in the late '80s. Battalion counters, it actually included EW rules and their effect on HQs. That was a neat wrinkle. Also neat: units took step losses, but you had to draw the step-strengths randomly, so you didn't quite know the exact strength of each unit. It made for great solitaire play in my dorm room in 1987.

During my last house move in 2000, I realized it had been years since I had played any of my WW3 stuff, so I boxed them all together in a big plastic bin. I opened it up recently, to get at TWW and Assault.

[M-Type]

If it makes you feel any better, I don't have any miniatures either

I just use some good 'ol doodles of tanks and little circles on big circles for infantry teams.

Or even just circles with notes scribbled down on them.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I have First Battle/Last Battle, GDW's skirmish level game of moderns, adapted to T2k. I didn't like the rules much, although they were pretty simple.

A bit too simple for my liking, although probably a little better than the macro combat rules in the "Pirates" and "Warsaw" modules. Opened up the Last Battle box a few weeks ago to see if it would be worth using for my upcoming f2f show downs in those modules - still on the fence...

[Cdnwolf]

I like GDW's Air Superiority/Air Strike air games for modern stuff. The Air Strike maps are compatible with Assault, btw.

I still have that lying around lol.

[Raellus]

Has anybody here played any of the Ambush Alley series of wargames? I have not but they have one dedicated to a "Cold War Gone Hot" (the game title).

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/stor..._9781849085366

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

A bit too simple for my liking, although probably a little better than the macro combat rules in the "Pirates" and "Warsaw" modules. Opened up the Last Battle box a few weeks ago to see if it would be worth using for my upcoming f2f show downs in those modules - still on the fence...

True, it did seem easier than those rules. I do use the counters for my FtF game, mostly the vehicles. I have a set of blank counters that I use, too, so I can pencil in the names of PCs. Old Squad Leader counters get used a lot, too.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

True, it did seem easier than those rules. I do use the counters for my FtF game, mostly the vehicles. I have a set of blank counters that I use, too, so I can pencil in the names of PCs. Old Squad Leader counters get used a lot, too.

I use a bunch of old plastic soldiers and matchbox vehicles which are of a similar scale.
When I can get them back off my 7 year old son anyway.

[Chris]

I haven't played with it yet, but I have a copy of Tomorrow's War which is Ambush Alley's SF rules. The same core engine is used for Cold War Gone Hot. The game is more concerned with infantry troop quality than individual load-outs. And unlike most minis games they're going with a 1 to 1 ground to miniature scale. Your maximum range is the entire board! Bring or build many terrain pieces.

I really love Lock N Load's World at War Series (http://www.locknloadgame.com/). It is platoon level 1985ish combat. Fast moving and not very detailed, but the scenarios we've played are nail-biters.

Later Days,
Chris